
Kingdom of Liars
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Narrated by:
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John Skelley
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By:
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Nick Martell
In this brilliant debut fantasy, a story of secrets, rebellion, and murder are shattering the Hollows, where magic costs memory to use, and only the son of the kingdom’s despised traitor holds the truth.
Michael is branded a traitor as a child because of the murder of the king’s nine-year-old son by his father David Kingman. Ten years later on Michael lives a hardscrabble life, with his sister Gwen, performing crimes with his friends against minor royals in a weak attempt at striking back at the world that rejects him and his family.
In a world where memory is the coin that pays for magic, Michael knows something is there in the hot white emptiness of his mind. So when the opportunity arrives to get folded back into court, via the most politically dangerous member of the kingdom’s royal council, Michael takes it, desperate to find a way back to his past. He discovers a royal family that is spiraling into a self-serving dictatorship as gun-wielding rebels clash against magically trained militia.
What the truth holds is a set of shocking revelations that will completely change the Hollows, if Michael and his friends and family can survive long enough to see it.
©2020 Nicholas Macdonald-Martell (P)2020 Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...




















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Worthy listen with a hiccup or two
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A good story but far from great.
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Excellent Story, Totally Worth a Read
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Excellent book. Great Start New Series
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The main character feels like Martell tried to make something new by taking pieces of several different archetypes and combining them. Unfortunately the result feels very forced as it lacks the rest of what makes those archetypes work.
Forced is actually a good word to describe the entirety of the book. The plot is runs by periodic reveals and twists, but there is little to no foreshadowing so they all feel hollow (pun intended). The magic system and world building are interesting, but again lack the refinement needed to really allow you to get invested.
All in all I probably won't be buying the second book when it comes out, but I hope he continues writing. Given some more time and practice I think Martell has promise.
Edit: actually I guess if I want him to keep writing I probably should buy the second book. Here's to hoping practice makes perfect!
Author shows promise but needs to work on a lot.
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In a welcome departure from the last couple books I've started and not gotten through, the main characters are not horribly misogynistic or abusive. I don't get why we seem to usually put up with that stuff in high fantasy, and this series so far is an indication that it's not a requirement in order to have a good story.
However, if I had it to do over, I'd have simply bought the book to read. All the characters from a given country in the world basically have the same voice- even male and female characters sound the same. John Skelley seems to have one "dialogue" voice and one "narration" voice, and it gets very confusing to follow which character is actually speaking a given sentence. A lot of attention must constantly be paid to the order of things- more so than most books. Martell's writing does mitigate this somewhat, as his character voices are quite strong. Once you get used to the characters, it's fairly easy to identify which character was speaking purely based on their language patterns, even if the narrator is using the same speaking voice.
Overall, worth a credit- it's far better than many audiobooks, but you may find yourself (as I did) rewinding occasionally to make sense of a piece of dialogue.
Also, I think it's worth mentioning that I came to buy this audiobook and experience the story entirely because of Nick Martell's appearance on Brandon Sanderson's livestream a few weeks ago. In case anyone from the publisher is reading this, please take notes- authors talking to fans and answering questions over the internet is very valuable and entertaining.
Good story, confusing narration.
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Stick with it.
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The world building is pretty good though.
Really wondering who is giving 5 stars to 2 star books
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I think that Martell could have played with how magic influences the society and how the society influence the magic a little bit more.
Michael Kingman definitely needs some work, but to me it seems more like he is just trying to do his best but keeps making all of the wrong choices, and I can relate to that on some levels.
Some of the dialogue is a little clunky. A lot of, "I am going to kill you when I get the chance," but that never really seems to be fulfilled.
I was not a fan of the narrator. I don't have a very good memory (part of what drew me to this book) and I rely alot on the narration to keep track of who is who, but Skelley seems to only have 3 or 4 different voices that all sound generally the same.
Just got the second book, I can't wait to see how the story, the author, and the narrator grow.
Not big on the narrator, but the story is good.
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Slow build, but great payoff
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